Most vinyl-sounding DAC?

[Lee]

These are the current settings I am using.

 

[Lee]

Of course dCS measures superb, because it employs sharp filter and/or oversampling which offers best measurement performance with good frequency response characteristics. On the other hand very slow filters (or NOS) keep linear phase and offer great transient characteristics which is more important than frequency response for people (including me) in terms of SQ.

I don’t hear any issues with transients on playback but I am always willing to try new filters.

 

[mtemur]

View attachment 126295
These are the current settings I am using.

It’s set upsampling everything to DSD if I’m not mistaken. My comments on filters were mainly about native PCM decoding. on the other hand upsampling and DSD aren’t perfect either IMHO.

 

[morricab]

They have build amazing machines 16 dacs chips to get best low level resolution the dc 91 dac is today under the top 3 dacs for me when you hear only cd.

Used probably the best DAC chip the BB PCM63K.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Used probably the best DAC chip the BB PCM63K.

My personal favorite ultra analog dac


P.S that thing need a heatsink on the top, or it died after years

 

[acousticsguru]

I changed the factory settings to those recommended by John Giolas. Then local dealer Scott Carpenter who has excellent critical listening skills created his own settings based on lengthy listening sessions and shared them with me. I really have them to be superb.

That's certainly quicker than to go through all the choices between Vivaldi Apex DAC and Upsampler units combined!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

 

[acousticsguru]

My personal favorite ultra analog dac
View attachment 126318

P.S that thing need a heatsink on the top, or it died after years

Nice, had a couple of DACs using those back in the era (one with swappable DAC board, that was quite interesting, the other with a tube output stage, either way, the UltraAnalog had a slightly thick and mellow sound that was nonetheless preferable to mostly anything else available at the time).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

 

[acousticsguru]

View attachment 126295
These are the current settings I am using.

Interesting. Needless to say, there are no "best" settings, those are system-dependent. But there are ones (the factory settings, and therein lies the irony…) that aren't meant for music playback.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

 

[morricab]

My personal favorite ultra analog dac
View attachment 126318

P.S that thing need a heatsink on the top, or it died after years

I own two DACs with thes modules. Both are from early 90s and neither has heat sinks. Both still work fine. The Ultraanalog input receivers though would fail. Better to just use a CS part.

 

[morricab]

Nice, had a couple of DACs using those back in the era (one with swappable DAC board, that was quite interesting, the other with a tube output stage, either way, the UltraAnalog had a slightly thick and mellow sound that was nonetheless preferable to mostly anything else available at the time).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

That was largely due to their frequent pairing with a PMD100 digital filter. When paired with a better digital filter they no longer sound like that.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Nice, had a couple of DACs using those back in the era (one with swappable DAC board, that was quite interesting, the other with a tube output stage, either way, the UltraAnalog had a slightly thick and mellow sound that was nonetheless preferable to mostly anything else available at the time).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

They have PRAT allways pleasure listen music with that thing and a tube outputstage sonic frontiers or stax x1 t dac

 

[DasguteOhr]

I own two DACs with thes modules. Both are from early 90s and neither has heat sinks. Both still work fine. The Ultraanalog input receivers though would fail. Better to just use a CS part.

Good luck , the only company that not ignore that problem are mark levinson dac no 30( thick aluminium block) and 35(heat sink)


P.S that chip get so hot that label gettin of after time

 

[morricab]

Good luck , the only company that not ignore that problem are mark levinson dac no 30( thick aluminium block) and 35(heat sink)
View attachment 126328

P.S that chip get so hot that label gettin of after time

As I said, 30+ years and still going…

 

[morricab]

They have PRAT allways pleasure listen music with that thing and a tube outputstage sonic frontiers or stax x1 t dac

I woukd love to have a STAX, which might actually be the most analog sounding DAC ever.

 

[acousticsguru]

I woukd love to have a STAX, which might actually be the most analog sounding DAC ever.

I remember that one well, unfortunately way beyond my financial means as a student back then! Loved that unit, but needs a custom shelf to be able to plug in the two (!) power cords (unless using stock).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

 

[DasguteOhr]

I woukd love to have a STAX, which might actually be the most analog sounding DAC ever.

I once had one, at some point I had the crazy idea that there was definitely something better and sold it. can someone please hit me in my face, there's nothing better...big exclamation point behind it.

P.S 3 power iec sockets at underside dac(digital,left and right chanel analog)

 

[Lee]

I once had one, at some point I had the crazy idea that there was definitely something better and sold it. can someone please hit me in my face, there's nothing better...big exclamation point behind it.

P.S 3 power iec sockets at underside dac(digital,left and right chanel analog)View attachment 126336

Technology has advanced quite a bit since that was released. Released in 1989 and limited to 20/48 resolution.

 

[acousticsguru]

I once had one, at some point I had the crazy idea that there was definitely something better and sold it. can someone please hit me in my face, there's nothing better...big exclamation point behind it.

P.S 3 power iec sockets at underside dac(digital,left and right chanel analog)View attachment 126336

Right, three. Anyways, fond memories apart from the inability to (easily) use some favorite power cords.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Technology has advanced quite a bit since that was released. Released in 1989 and limited to 20/48 resolutio.

With modern formats e.g. DSD I agree with you, but there are still people outhere who only listen to CDs. Then it becomes difficult for modern competition. Sure, I didn't have a Wadax or a Metrome c/AQWO dac. From what I heard at the demonstrations, I wouldn't panic about selling the device again today If I still owned the Stax. I'm happy with my metronome C6dac because you can play excellent music but in the back of my mind the Stax has a very special place.

 

[acousticsguru]

Technology has advanced quite a bit since that was released. Released in 1989 and limited to 20/48 resolutio.

True, but some people around here (not me) never listen to high-resolution digital, so if redbook CD and DAT were all one is playing, it’s still a pretty fine DAC.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.